


"Chaos can be good"

by Kairos27universe



Category: Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Introspection, Mention of Social Link events, Mostly Yosuke's POV, Naoto's POV too, Shortly Yu's POV, Talk in the middle of the night, The night at the Amagi Inn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 08:05:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17463737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kairos27universe/pseuds/Kairos27universe
Summary: Yosuke wakes up during the night at the Amagi Inn. He meets a certain pint-sized detective, suspicious of him.Then, they talk.Even unpredictable little talks can lead to something big, something good.





	"Chaos can be good"

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't want to copy and paste whole transcripts of Social Link rank-ups, but I still put a few lines to better clarify which one they are and why they play into the story. Hope it doesn't seem too odd or out of place.

“Owww…!”

That was the sound Yosuke made as a single foot suddenly landed on his face.

He pushed away Teddie’s leg hastily while holding his pained nose with the other hand. The grunt he made wasn’t enough to wake up the blonde boy though, as he merely turned around on his futon with a smile on his face, probably dreaming with something pervy…or with topsicles, he hoped.

In fact, it seemed like no one had woken up. Yosuke sat up, looked around, and then gave off a sigh. It was quite typical of his luck to be the one on the receiving end of a random kick in the middle of the night. He almost shouted at Teddie, but held himself back. He didn’t want to disturb Yu and Kanji’s sleeping, and when he stopped to think about it, it wasn’t really Teddie’s fault. Though he would remember this, and make sure next time he sleeps far, far away from the bear.

Yosuke got up silently and (making sure his kimono was neatly tied up) walked out of the room. He was lightly touching his nose with the tip of his fingers, trying to ease the pain. It didn’t really work. He groaned as he walked as further away as he could, passing through the empty corridors and reaching the entrance room to the Inn. As he expected, an employee was standing there by the counter: one of the older waitresses, who quickly moved to speak with him.

“May I help you, young man?” She seemed worried. _Of course_. A teenager walking around the inn past midnight was probably either in trouble, or up to no good. Yosuke kinda fell in the former category, but didn’t really wanna be questioned about it, so he answered quickly while forcing a smile.

“N-no, I’m okay. Just wanted to… go out and get some fresh air.” _Clichéd, but it would be enough_.

“I-I see… If you’d like, I can take you to one of our employee rooms. It gives access to the outside without leaving the property of the inn. Oh, and it’s also turned to the east, so you’ll get to see the sunrise!”

It was obvious from her tone that she was trying to please him (after all, he **was** a customer and they all wished to make sure people want to come back to the inn), but Hanamura also sensed a bit of… worry, maybe? What could she be worrying about?

…

…It suddenly hit him that her concern was his safety – because of the **_murders_**. While Yosuke and his friends all knew that only people in specific conditions were targeted, everyone else in Inaba had no idea of that, so the fear of someone else getting killed was still present among the townsfolk, even if nothing of the sort happened since Morooka. She was looking out for him, making sure he doesn’t go too far away from safety; so he almost felt guilty trying to push her away. Suddenly, memories of long, brown strands of hair emerged in his mind but he quickly brushed those off before they overwhelmed him.

“T-that’d be nice. But, um, are you sure it’s okay for me to…?”

“Oh, it will be okay, don’t worry! You are one of Yuki-chan’s friends, aren’t you? In any case, the room is not being used right now, so you can make yourself comfortable there.” The lady said, cheerfully cutting him off. The boy only really wished to sit back for a bit, away from the combo of haunted room plus Teddie’s kicks, so he guessed it was okay. He nodded, and started following the waitress back to the corridors. Once they arrived in the aforementioned place, the waitress smiled and bowed gracefully, before going back to her post. Yosuke was now standing alone in the middle of the room.

He sighed, once again touching his nose. The pain had subsided a little, though not enough for him to stop groaning. Looking around, he saw a table, a few chairs, and some pillows and blankets stacked in a pile on one side of the room. On the adjacent wall there were the _shoji_ doors: the traditional wood and paper sliding doors used throughout the entire building. Moving closer, he slowly opened them, revealing the outside of the Amagi Inn.

There were a few lanterns hanging from the roof, arranged throughout the outside corridor, so it wasn’t completely dark. Yosuke walked to the middle of the wooden floor, and quietly sat with his left leg resting on the floor while the right one was bent with the knee pointing upwards; allowing him to rest his right arm over it. He then inhaled and exhaled slowly, once. Then, twice. The pain in his nose pulsed, so he tried to distract himself by looking up to the night sky. Artificial lighting could hinder the view of the stars, but as Inaba was a small town it was still quite possible to admire them, in contrast with the big city he had lived in before. _Guess that’s another one of the pros here, huh…_

His stargaze lasted about two minutes. He didn’t notice the soft footsteps that slowly made their way to him.

“Yosuke-senpai.”

“ **Hiik…!** What the…” Hanamura turned around to look at whoever gave him the scare, hoping that the high-pitched shriek he let out wasn’t as loud as he thought.

The person standing there was Naoto; hatless and wearing the inn’s kimono just like him. He wasn’t sure what to expect from her right now, since she had on her face her signature emotionless expression, so for a few seconds he tried to read her mood, to no avail. This mildly annoyed Yosuke.

“Yo, Naoto. What are you doing here, this late at night?”

“I could ask the same of you.”

 _Dammit, should have anticipated that..._ “J-just taking in some fresh air, y’know…”

The look in her eyes suddenly became obvious. She was suspicious of him. “Hm… And then you had the waitress bring you here, to this specific place, just for that?”

“W-what? No, that was… she was the one who insisted on it. Guess she was wary about the murders, sounded like she didn’t want me to go out of the property.”

Naoto seemed to take in and thoroughly analyze this bit of information, only answering with a small nod as her eyes looked sideways. Hanamura stared for a while until it dawned on him the attendant had already been gone for a few minutes when Shirogane walked in.

“Hey, how did you know about the waitress?! Were you following me?”

Shirogane’s cheeks suddenly seemed tinted with a red hue, even in the dim light of the lanterns. “N-no, I…! Well, it’s just that I happened to see you two walking around, and… got curious as to what was happening.”

He held back a snicker. It was very enjoyable seeing the usually stoic Naoto showing emotions, or even better: stuttering and blushing like this. It was quite cute! But he supposed if he laughed at her now she would be less than pleased. The grin in his face, though, was still very apparent.

“Well, that’s a detective for ya! But I wasn’t doing anything wrong, if that was your concern.” He winked, complimenting his smile. Yosuke then turned around to his original position, with his back facing Naoto. He continued a few moments later, with a muffled yawn. “…Just chilling a little.”

The girl considered his words, but didn’t say anything. As time passed he started wondering if she even was behind him anymore or if she had decided to go back to sleep, but as if on cue, he saw Naoto silently sitting down by his side, mirroring his position.

“Um…” Her eyes where gazing down, seeming unsure of what or how to speak. The boy was surprised that she actually came closer to talk. He thought only Yu had the honor of having small talk with the Detective Prince! Jokes aside, what could she want with him now?

“Yes..?”

“About earlier… in the Hot Springs.”

“Oh.”

 _Oh._ He remembered the events from earlier that night. When the guys had innocently entered the hot springs, correctly following the time schedule yet the girls robbed them of their bath and basically banished them, with no shame or remorse at all. They even refused to acknowledge it or apologiz-

“I apologize.”

“…W-what?!”

If she was startled by his sudden outburst, she didn’t let it show. “We only discovered we were bathing in the men’s time period after shoving you all out. The girls made an agreement to keep it quiet and push the blame on you, but I understand if it made you so upset you couldn’t sleep. I-I’m sorry…”

She looked straight at his eyes, seeming sincere. Yosuke was…flabbergasted. And also somewhat outraged. _I wanted to be mad at the girls just a little more to show them how shitty that was, but…! With Naoto looking at me like t-this, how can I?_

“I-It’s okay! I appreciate that you apologized though. In the end none of us took a bath, so it _was_ kinda shitty…” He closed his mouth when he realized his words. He didn’t want to make her feel worse, but his mouth didn’t get the memo! “B-but it’s alright, you feel sorry for it so it’s all in the past now! Though Chie better think twice before asking me to pay her any food for a month.”

Hanamura’s assertion and quick joke seemed enough for her to relax; she hummed, seeming amused, and her gaze went back to some trees far away inside the property of the inn. He, too, felt more at ease, and went back to stargazing. That is, for about 10 seconds at most, when her face started to change into an embarrassed look.

“Er… You boys didn’t…see anything then, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean us… Me…”

It clicked to him what she was talking about. It was a shame that his mouth started running before he had the time to think through a sensible answer.

“Nah, I didn’t see anything, unfortunately…”

“W-what?! Yosuke-senpai!”

“Ah…! I mean-“

“W-why would you say such a thing?! Perhaps Rise-san was right when she called you a pervert…“

“I’m not!!” He raised his hands in the air, defensively, as Naoto went from embarrassed to outraged in the blink of an eye. The day had been bad enough already, and angering someone that regularly carried a gun would not help at all. “It’s… You can’t blame me for wanting to see!” This didn’t seem to help in the slightest, so he took a deep breath and came up with something else. “A-anyways, I… I asked the guys if they saw anything and they denied. Probably because of the steam of the hot springs and all the _bucket throwing_. So if that’s your only worry, you can rest safe now.”

Naoto gritted her teeth, but seemed to calm down a little. “Mhm… I… I will give you a discount since you didn’t know we were there. But you really ought to make things even worse for yourself, don’t you Yosuke-senpai?” She looked sideways, her eyebrows furrowed. “As if putting us in the beauty pageant wasn’t enough…”

“O-oh…” Hanamura scratched his head, uncomfortable. This hit a weak spot. He couldn’t come up with a retort at all, so Naoto just kept speaking, while pinching the bridge of her nose.

“I still don’t understand how you could simply put our names in there without consulting us! Though I suppose you just wanted to see us in skimpy attire _that_ much, huh…”

“What?! I had nothing to do with that! Or are you saying I incited Teddie to have you guys wearing bikini?! It was all his idea!” _Not a completely bad idea, though_ , he thought; but concluded it was better to keep that for himself. The detective looked at Yosuke, as if to check his facial features to confirm if he was lying.

“That… may be true; Teddie does have those tendencies on his own. But it doesn’t change the fact that you put us in the beauty pageant in the first place!”

 _…! A retort…! Quick, before it fades from your mind, Yosuke!_  “The beauty pageant that you won, mind you!”

That seemed to take her aback. Yosuke had difficulty in hiding his grin.

“I…That isn’t relevant! I did not have any intention of winning; I just participated out of obligation. It’s not my fault that people voted for me!”

“Isn’t it, though? Haha, you got them all to like you.”

“Ah…!” She instinctively raised her hand to bring her hat down and cover her embarrassed face, but realized too late it wasn’t there. This only made him chuckle heartily. She gritted her teeth harder, and turned her head to the opposite side.

They stayed like this for a whole minute, Yosuke getting more and more uncomfortable with the silence as time passed. He thought he should say something, at least to mitigate her anger a little.

“You know when Chie called me to the roof, to confront me about the whole thing?”

The detective turned her head slightly, only part of her face visible; still, it was clear she was eyeing him attentively.

“I meant it when I said I overlooked the obligatory part. Ok, putting your names in the pageant was stupid, but still… I still thought you would be able to bail if you really didn’t want to do it.” He stopped for a few seconds, looking sideways to the floor. “…Of course, I hoped you would end up getting into it and participating.”

Shirogane looked at him, and when their eyes met, both realized they were slightly flushed. “Me?”

“I-I meant, all of you. But yeah, you included.”

“…Why?”

“Hey, I said it back then, didn’t I? Why hold a beauty pageant if the stars of the school aren’t participating?! An idol, the popular girl… Even Chie has her fans, apparently! And you, the detective prince! Some of the most amazi—“

“Stop with the flattering.” Her tone was annoyed, making him wince.

“…Okay, I… just wanted to get you guys to participate. No big reason or grandiose motivations, just…that. I thought it would be cool.”

 _So that things wouldn’t get boring, huh?_ He sighed. _Just like my Shadow said, back then_. And for what? Why was boredom so bad for him?

He knew the answer. He wanted to distract himself. From _it_. From…

“…Then why didn’t you ask us?”

 _…Straight-forward, huh._ But he was glad she cut his thoughts short. “I don’t know, it would be weird to ask _that_ … Besides, I thought… maybe you guys would decline?”

“Well, I do reserve the right of declining a beauty pageant invitation, thank you very much.” She sneered at him. “Still, it would be much better to talk to us beforehand, instead of simply signing us up.”

“Yeah…” He looked away, in embarrassment and guilt.

“It was something far out of my comfort zone.” Putting a hand over her face, the detective seemed to be less angry now. “And then the result came… I’m still not sure how to feel about it.”

Yosuke snorted, getting her attention. “Yeah, congratulations by the way. You won the pageant without even showing up for the second phase! Though that wasn’t necessary after you endeared everyone right at the first one.”

“S-stop saying such things!”

Getting the detective prince to stutter like that surely improved his mood. “Well, it’s the truth. And well, isn’t it nice to know you won, even not really wanting to participate? I mean…” He winced a little. “I was not happy with going on stage as a girl, but losing to Teddie wasn’t great either. If I had won the contest at least I’d have a cool story to tell later, maybe? Haha…”

It seemed more like he was trying to convince himself than convince her.

“Like I said earlier, I don’t really know…” She sighed. “I was so lost during the whole ordeal; I didn’t even know how to feel. It was so chaotic…”

He chuckled a little. “Hey, that’s okay. Sometimes… chaos can be good.”

She gave him a look she rarely gave _him_ \-- but seemed to often give to his partner Yu: one of curiosity. This made him feel a bit cheeky. “It can?”

“Yeah. I mean, that’s what led you to meet us, right? You can’t tell me using yourself as bait for a dangerous killer just to move the case forward doesn’t exude some serious chaotic energy.”

Shirogane’s eyebrows furrowed, visibly confused. The boy considered that perhaps she wasn’t used to trendy teen words like he was, so she probably didn’t really get that. He couldn’t blame her if his choice of words was confusing... or worse, if his logic was a little out there. He opened his mouth with the intention of rephrasing, but Naoto started talking before he could.

“I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I… think I understand what you meant. Unpredictability can bring about positive developments… Is that right?”

He grinned, glad that she was able to get that on her own. _Of course_ , he thought, _she’s a teenage detective. It’s a given that she’s a genius._ He gave her a playful wink. “Exactly.”

“Putting us in the pageant resulted in you participating too. From what you said earlier concerning winning against Teddie, I suppose one can assume you grew attached to the skirt you used, then?”

He looked at her, and was surprised to see the detective was smiling somewhat mischievously at him. Hanamura slowly realized she was teasing him. _Naoto_! Teasing _him!_ He could barely believe it. _How did such a dramatic turn of events happen?!_ But he guessed he deserved it for once.

“N-no, maybe I’ll skip on that one. I guess you’re not going to show up wearing a skirt any day soon, either, are you?”

“A-absolutely not. Even if people already know my secret, it’s still… My usual clothes are still what I feel most comfortable wearing.” Her face had a tint of red. To his surprise, he uncharacteristically did not feel like teasing her. He just smiled. His mind barely registered when his mouth started moving on its own, however.

“Hey, it’s not like that’s something bad. What you usually wear is pretty cool, and really suits you.” A small pause. “At least I like it. Though a change of pace like the kimono you’re wearing now does accentuate your beauty a lot.”

“O-oh…” When he heard the high-pitched voice she let out, he finally realized what he had just said. Her cheeks were very rosy, and he felt his own face starting to get hot.

“U-um, I mean…! I…!” His mind started shifting through all his options. Should he take that back? Apologize? Crack a joke to kill the mood? Or maybe just get up and run away as quickly as possible? _What?! I’m not a little kid who can’t hit on someone without dying of embarrassment!_ And it wasn’t like he _didn’t_ make flirtatious comments towards the girls every now and then. But one so absent-minded like this? That was new…

Before anyone could say anything else, light appeared before them; a weak orange light that came all the way from the horizon. Yosuke knew it was late, and the waitress did mention the sunrise, but he didn’t expect to actually get to see it. Both he and Naoto looked intently as the sky started to change colors slightly with the beginning of another day.

It was quite a nice sight, he thought. Definitely not boring.

The use of this specific word got him out of the trance. _Damn it, I don’t want to think about my Shadow again, now…_ He turned to look at the detective, who had a pleased smile while staring at the sunrise. This unconsciously made him smile too.

Suddenly, his mind remembered at which hour the sunrise appeared.

“Hey, it’s pretty and all, but doesn’t that mean we are awake in the weirdest time possible? Like, shouldn’t we be sleeping?”

Her eyes went to back to him, and he saw the blush on her cheeks had dwindled. He _really_ hoped she forgot his earlier comment. “I went to sleep quite early with Nanako-chan, and since I usually wake up early too, my sleep schedule is not really much off.” She said, holding a finger to her chin. “Actually, my body might be used to resting a fixed amount of hours so it probably woke up thinking it was enough.”

“Whoa, so you had a good reason for waking up. In my case, all I needed was an involuntary kick on the nose from Teddie in his sleep!” He said, sheepishly. Throughout his conversation with the Detective Prince he had forgotten about the pain in his nose. He was glad about that, though remembering it now made the pain come back slightly.

“Oh, so that’s why…! Is it still hurting?”

“Hm?” Oh. He didn’t expect her to care much about that. “I… No, it’s much better now! And our little talk helped get my mind off it, so thanks for that.”

“…You’re welcome.”

They stayed silent for some time, gazing at the dawn of day. A yawn came to Yosuke, barely being muffled by his hand.

“You on the other hand didn’t get enough hours of sleep, did you?”

“No, I… Couldn’t sleep until late at night, and waking up now… No, not really.”

She got up. “Then maybe you should try and get a bit more rest, at least until everyone else wakes up.” He was surprised to her hand being offered to him. Naoto was arguably the one member of the team he was most distant to, yet just this one lucky talk seemed to be all he needed to close that gap. Hanamura found that to be ironic, as luck was never really his strongest asset.

Perhaps fortune had rubbed off on him.

Taking her hand, he got up in one go, and smiled at her. “This was…nice. Hope you don’t hate me anymore for the beauty pageant thing.” His smile turned playful, and one eye winked at her.

“I never really _hated_ you per se, but it _is_ nice knowing you feel bad for what you did. Perhaps you are not as bad as you seem at first. Or even at second.”

“Ouch…” He feigned pain, while her smile became impish. Yeah, she was totally comfortable to joke around with him already.

…

Their faces became flushed almost simultaneously as they noticed they were still holding hands. Quickly pulling back with a gasp, they could hardly say another word or look at each other for a few seconds. When Hanamura finally gathered the courage to do the latter, though, she was already eyeing him back. And in that instant he realized two things.

First, that she was, indeed, very beautiful. Something he overlooked in the past but knew that from now on it would not be possible anymore.

And second… That from the way she was looking at him, in some way, somehow, he _knew_ that she definitely did _not_ forget his earlier compliment.

 _Shit_.

She walked forward a few steps, then turned back to look at him. “S-shouldn’t we go? I think I will take a look to see how Nanako-chan’s sleep is going.”

“O-oh, yeah, sure. Let’s go.”

Grateful for her quick recovery he trailed after her, and after walking back to the corridors, they stopped by the stairs. Their rooms were in different floors, so it was time to part ways.

“See you later?” He was the first to break the silence. She nodded, her expression closer to the neutral one she usually had but a small smile still visible.

“See you later, senpai.”

…

Naoto arrived at the girls’ room quietly. She did not want to disturb her friends' rest. Making her way to her futon, she saw Nanako still in deep, peaceful sleep. A grin appeared on her lips, as she laid down and picked up her cell phone, checking if her grandpa hadn’t sent any messages (he didn’t).

Placing her fingers over her face, she noticed warmth, which meant she was still blushing a little. Cursing under her breath, Naoto moved her hand so that her fingers covered her eyes. _Why?_

…She knew why. Her mind took her back to the moment where Yosuke made that statement. It was a very clear memory. She knew it wouldn’t go away so easily.

 _Why are things so complicated...?_ She asked herself. Still… It was not something particularly negative. She remembered another thing he had said, and started musing about it. _Unpredictability can lead to good things…_

…

The talk was very enjoyable for Yosuke too. He mentally went over the whole thing, with a small smile on his face. It started to morph into a frown, however, as he remembered something.

_‘I thought it would be cool. So that things wouldn’t get boring.’_

What he did to the girls concerning the beauty pageant was just for fun. Just for him to amuse himself, without thinking about others. How did that make him any different from his Shadow?

From the back of his mind, the reason came up again. He was still trying to ignore something. **Forget** something. Of course, while looking for random stuff in his drawer when he got home, that _something_ came back at him with full force. Print Club. Last year. A sticker with a few pictures. In all of them, him and Saki-senpai smiling or making funny poses.

Checking his cell phone, it was still just past lunchtime. _Great_. While initially unsure if he should contact him, the boy remembered how his partner had even yelled at his co-workers to help him last time, so decided that he could be trusted on this.

Yosuke brushed his fingers over a forming tear as he reread the text before tapping the ‘Send’ button; a simple invitation asking Narukami to meet him in a few minutes. The answer came extremely quick, to his relief. Putting on his shoes, he walked out of the doorstep.

 Yosuke took one last look at the paper on his hand. He hoped that talking with Yu could help him sort out this whole... thing.

He then remembered the ‘unpredictable things can turn out good’ bit he had told Naoto.

...It was just him spilling out nonsense trying to sound cool, but... he hoped it could apply to him too.

* * *

 

>Samegawa riverbank…

>You wandered here with a pensive Yosuke…

…

…

“Why did she...have to die?”

>Yosuke is sobbing out loud...

“Yu... I get it now... I wanted to forget about Saki-senpai. How she's not here anymore... I wanted to forget that... I was living a boring life in the middle of nowhere.”

…

…

“But I think I’m awake now… I need to get over the fact that Saki-senpai is not coming back… That when this case ends… I’ll have nowhere to run… And I won’t have changed…

…You made me realize that.”

 

> Yosuke seems to have something else in his mind too. Perhaps there’s another factor that helped kick-start these thoughts besides the photos... In any case,

>It seems you were able to act as Yosuke’s crutch…

…

>The Yosuke Hanamura Social Link has reached level 8!

* * *

  
  
>You have the rest of the week off...

>You saw Yosuke, but he seems to be deep in thought. Perhaps he needs a few days for himself...

>You decided to help Naoto with the phantom thief situation for the time being.

...

* * *

 

>Yosuke contacted you. He wants to talk.

...

...

* * *

 

With the fog recently enveloping Inaba even without the days of rain, their leader had decided it would be in their best interests to go back to the Midnight Channel to hone their skills and perhaps find another clue about the culprit. Apparently all they would get for today would be the former.

The best place to train currently was the Secret Lab, and while Naoto was a bit uncomfortable going back there she soon got used to it and focused more on the battles and on her Persona’s growth after each of them.

She didn’t, however, ignore the strange bruises that appeared on two of her teammates. Yu and Yosuke had their faces covered in band-aids and purple spots, as if they had gotten into a violent fight. After Yosuke advanced to defeat a Shadow with his new Persona’s saw blade (why did he have a new Persona...? She thought that was a peculiarity of their leader), she took the opportunity to approach the silver-haired boy who stood far behind his partner.

In truth, she had been somewhat distant of the Prince of Junes since their talk at the Amagi Inn; ever since then he always seemed off and pensive whenever they (with the group, of course) would meet. She admitted she was worried about being the source of his distress, and so chose to give him space. At the same time, it didn’t seem like he was being very talkative with anyone lately, so perhaps it wasn’t really directed at her.

Then again, that just fueled her fears that he and Yu had argued and got into a fight.

The detective trailed closer to their leader, questioning him about the bruises. Without changing his neutral expression, he explained it was not something to worry about, even as she pointed out that Hanamura was in the same condition.

Meanwhile, their teammates continued pummeling Shadows.

Without going into details, he told Shirogane the two partners just needed to ‘assert’ something, and were now better friends than ever. It was hard for the blue-haired teen to process that friends punching each other really helped do anything, but ended up conceding. After all the help he had been giving her in the last few days with the phantom thief case, she decided to trust him on this one.

The battle was over, and the others started regrouping. Everyone walked forward, passing by the sci-fi super computers into the hatch that led to a deeper part of the dungeon. Yosuke was a little up ahead, seemingly leading them to their destination.

Suddenly, it was Yu’s turn to ask Naoto if she was okay, concerning the beauty pageant. Yukiko and Chie, now close enough to participate in the talk, also questioned how things were with her victory, last week. Despite being startled by the trio’s sudden inquiry, the detective’s sharp eyes caught Yosuke wincing, his shoulders slumping slightly. She sighed once, musing about what to say. 

“I can’t believe it turned out the way it did... There were so many unpredictable factors... But sometimes...” She turned her eyes discreetly to the Prince of Junes again, still with his back turned to them. “...chaos can be good.”

It’s not like she didn’t know he could hear her, but his following reaction still made her heart skip a beat. Yosuke turned his head just enough so that she could see his face. He had a smile that expressed amusement and _joy_ in hearing her repeat what he said that night. And it was directed at her, solely at her.

“I-I won’t say that it was in this case, however.” This was Shirogane’s knee-jerk reaction to that, which prompted Yosuke to start laughing at her stuttering mess; a light-hearted, warm laugh.

Despite Chie and Kanji immediately nagging him about supposedly mocking Naoto (to which he half-heartedly protested but still apologized), she didn’t feel any hint of scorn or malice from him. In fact, after a week of his quiet, gloomy disposition, seeing him smile and laugh so heartily to her and _because_ of her just made this strange warmness in her chest grow.

With the subject dropped, everyone advanced to see a bunch of Shadows on the distance. It was time to continue their training. Before she realized it, Yosuke was standing by her side, knives on hand and ready for the incoming brawl. He had a confident smile on his face, a bit different from his usual cocky one.

Did he slow down his step to meet her? Or did she unconsciously walk faster to catch up with him? Were those even mutually exclusive?

“Ready for some action, Miss ‘Beauty Pageant Winner'?”

“Hah. Stand back and watch, senpai. After winning that event, I don't think any Shadows are going to be a challenge anymore.” She summoned her Persona, Sukuna-Hikona, which prepared a Mahamaon of sparkling light and numerous holy seals to destroy their enemies, who had noticed them and started running on their direction swiftly.

“Be my guest. I’ll take care of your rearguard.”

She looked at him sideways, raising an eyebrow. “Was that some kind of innuendo?”

“What?! No, I just meant...” At that moment she could no longer hold back the playful smile that had been trying to break free from her lips. “Wait, are you poking fun at me? _Again?”_

His tone was incredulous, but he had a smile on his face.

“Of course. I must admit, it’s _very_ amusing, Yosuke-senpai.” Almost all Shadows were obliterated by the Persona’s Light skill, as the blast of white and gold slowly dwindled. A lone enemy stood still, unaffected by the attack; before it could react however, a gust of green wind swirled quickly around it like a miniaturized hurricane.

As the last bits of the Shadow disappeared in the ground, the brown-haired boy gave her a small nudge on the arm as he laughed heartily.

“Can’t say I don’t like it. Let’s go, Naoto!” He was grinning – no, beaming at her; something that made the warmness in her chest grow again, like he was a small sun that thawed any defenses she might have. The warmness moved to her cheeks too, as she realized she _really_ liked that sunny smile.

...

Why did she like it so much?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey I could update the story I already have... ooor I could just make this 5000 word separate fic. Though at least it's a one-shot, so soon I'll be back to updating the other one
> 
> edit (01/21): Revised the story, correcting typos and other things that may have been repetitive. Should be much better to read through now! Thank you for reading ^^


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